#5 Civil Rights Essay

Example #1


        The slaves all waited together, one after another being pulled up to the block. Raised up high for everybody to see how much they were worth. Auctioned like livestock. Everybody has a rock hard expression, but deep sorrow in their eyes. Staring into their dark future. The undesired ones were the first to go. One by one their prices were decided. Then, they were hauled off to work for the rest of their life. Only a few out of the many slaves were fortunate enough to see the end of the Civil War. This was still a dark time. They were only freed, but now it was up the them to escape the life they had lived before. It would take brave people to lead, and make things happen in order to bring equal rights to everyone.

Many years before the Civil Rights Movement, African-American men, women and children were slaves to white men. They were forced to do the labor that whites did not want to do. If the slaves didn’t do the work they would be beaten. They lived in horrible conditions. This lasted until the Civil war in 1861. The war ended in 1865. The slaves were freed, but were still not treated with equal rights. In May of 1896 segregation was approved. African-Americans weren’t allowed to mix with the White people in school, work and businesses. These are some of the many historical events leading up to the Civil Rights Movement.

Numerous people supported the Civil Rights Movement including a few white people. Some of the supporting groups and individuals who supported this movement, included the NAACP, Martin Luther King, Black Power, John F. Kennedy, Black Panther, Malcolm X and Lyndon B. Johnson. The NAACP was formed as a result of lynching. They wanted to end racial discrimination and give equal rights to the African-American people. They helped in moving the Civil Rights Movement forward. In 1955 NAACP member Rosa Parks started the Montgomery Bus Boycott when she refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus. This boycott was lead by Martin Luther King. Seventeen thousand African-Americans stopped using the busses. The Montgomery Bus Company lost so much income that they had to remove their segregation policy. The NAACP did many beneficial things during the Civil Rights Movement.

Unfortunately there were still many people against civil rights. One of the largest groups was the KKK or Ku Klux Klan. The KKK was primarily based in the south, and their main target was the Black population. They would murder, burn houses, churches, schools and terrorized their victims in many other ways. The KKK’s main goal was to maintain white supremacy. There were several groups and people during the Civil Rights Movement who fought hard for what they believed in. Some were for the Civil Rights Movements, others were against it.

There were many events included in the Civil Rights Movement. Most, if not all, were as a result of the leaders at this time. In 1870 the Jim Crow Law was passed. Segregation was approved and Blacks and whites could not mix. Later in the Plessy Vs Ferguson case Segregation was allowed only as long as Blacks had the same rights as the whites. Lynching became part of everyday life around 1900. From 1886 to 1900 there were over twenty-five hundred lynchings. In 1910 the NAACP was founded. Many years later, the Brown Vs Board of Education makes segregation in public schools illegal. In 1963 Martin Luther King gave his I Have a Dream speech. In the same year John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Segregation ended and Blacks could now vote, when Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act bill in 1965. Many events contributed to the Civil Rights Movement until finally it was over, giving Blacks the same rights as every other citizen.


Example #2


      We stood there, an army of men and women, standing united in a cause that would change our lives forever. People, colored and white, young and old, standing together in the hope of a new world. A place where we could all be equal, and free to do things without being ridiculed, and mistreated. Where our lives would change forever, and become what we have dreamed and waited so long for. We knew this time we could achieve everything our forefathers had worked for, and this time we would not fail. The Civil Rights Movement would be our hope, our salvation, and would finally bring freedom, and equality. It would come by storm and we would never give up, not without a fight. Many years before the Civil Rights Movement, historical events would shape our way to freedom, lead by many leaders, who would stand to make a difference, and the events that would come years later, when the Movement came into play.

Before the Civil Rights Movement, some historical events took place, an event was a change in the laws.  There were certain laws made to keep two kinds of people apart, the whites, and the blacks. The laws were called,  the Jim Crow laws.  The Jim Crow laws of 1880-1960 were racial segregation laws, made to keep blacks and whites separate. The laws consisted of, blacks and whites could not intermarriage, which means they can not  marry each other.  It also forced businesses to keep their black and white customers separate. Another law was, the black and white children, could only play on designated playgrounds. The Jim Crow Law wasn’t the only thing, before the Civil Rights Movement, there was the Civil War.  The Civil War lasted from 1861-1865. It was a war with our own continent, caused from conflict between the Northern states, and the Southern states. Northern states wanted the enslaved people free, and seven Southern states still believed that slavery was necessary.  The Northern States, that wanted slaves free won the war, but unfortunately there were still people against slaves and still treated them like they were a lower class of people, and the people against the black people, spread like a disease.

People stepped up to be leaders, to bring a stop to the constant discrimination, during the Civil Right Movement. Two of those leaders include, soon to be president John F. Kennedy (JFK), and Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a big part of the Civil Rights Movement, when he lead the March on Washington, then gave his, “I have a dream” speech, in which he envisioned a world where every man was created equal.  It was this speech that inspired Congress to enact the Civil Rights Act, in 1964. When Martin Luther King was arrested in 1963, John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy phoned the judge to ensure Martin Luther Kings safe release. If JFK had not given his help to Martin Luther, he could not give his “I Have a Dream” speech, which never would  have sparked the Civil Rights Act.  President Kennedy also ordered a group of U.S. Marshals to protect the freedom riders from the mob of white people in Montgomery, Alabama, during 1861.

Two events that were big parts of the Civil Rights Movement were, the March on Washington and the Watts Riot.  The March on Washington in 1963, was a political riot due to the problem of human rights for African Americans. The march was organized by a group of civil rights, labor, and religious organizations, under the theme of  “jobs, and freedom.” This was the march then lead up to Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. A few years later another event took place called the Watts Riot. The Watts Riot in 1965, began when Marquette Frye, a young African American motorist, was arrested by Lee W. Minikus, a white highway patrolman. Lee W. Minikus said he was going to arrest him for “drunk driving.” As Marquette Frye was being arrested, many people began to gather around the scene, and tensions between the police officers and the crowd filled the air. Eventually the tension erupted into violence, and this small scale riot began. This small riot triggered a larger scale riot, that lasted for six days, eventually resulting in forty million dollars worth of property damage.


Example #3


  The slaves worked in the cotton fields of Virginia underneath the scorching sun, all the while thinking to themselves how wonderful it would be to be free. This thought led into ideas, ideas that would later produce historical events leading up to the Civil Rights Movement. There were many great people who became leaders because they took a stand, either for slavery or against it. They led many of the events during the Civil Rights Movement.

The Civil War, the Plessy vs Ferguson segregation case, lynching, slavery, the formation of the KKK [Ku Klux Klan], and Jim Crow laws all lead up to the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil War was the biggest event, and also the most tragic. It was America against itself, men fighting against those they loved for what they believed was right. The north was fighting for equality for all men, even African-Americans. The south was fighting because they believed that only white men were men, and so they could keep their slaves and keep them working on their plantations. Abraham Lincoln was president at the time [1864], and he said, “War, at best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and duration, is one of the most terrible . . . It has destroyed property and ruined homes . . . It has carried mourning to almost every home, until it can almost be said that ‘the heavens are covered in black’” [NPS]. Many lives were lost during this war, but they helped disband slavery. The formation of the KKK [Ku Klux Klan] on December 24, 1865 [History] played a big role in the lives of African-Americans. The KKK was a group of people who disagreed with equal rights for everyone. As a result, they attacked African-Americans homes, stole their possessions, and lynched them. Lynching is when people were taken from their homes, then murdered.

There were many leaders in the fight for civil rights. Some were good and some were bad. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, NAACP, John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, Robert Kennedy, and Malcolm X were leaders who stood for civil rights, while the KKK did not. John F. Kennedy became president in 1961. He helped fight against segregation for African-Americans. When African-American students wanted to enroll in a segregated college, but were prevented from doing so, President Kennedy sent people from the National Guard to help them get in and register for these colleges. This helped many African-Americans get the education they needed and wanted. Because of this, John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. was also a major leader in the fight for civil rights. He lead many marches opposing segregation and unfair treatment of African-Americans. His famous “I Have a Dream” speech made a great impact on the Civil Rights Movement. Many gathered in the Mall to hear him say the words, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”[American Rhetoric]. This was an amazing speech that affected the Civil Rights Movement greatly. He was later assassinated on April 4, 1968.

There were many events that occurred while many were fighting for their rights. Among these were the Brown vs Board of Education, Little Rock 9, Rosa Parks Bus Boycott in Montgomery, the famous “I Have a Dream” speech from Martin Luther King, Jr., the voting rights bill, and finally the signing of the Civil Rights Bill. In 1955, Rosa Parks sat on a bus, and when a white man demanded her seat from her, she refused to be robbed of her rights. She was later arrested and was fined ten dollars [US History]. This was a major act against segregation. Eight years later, on June 6, 1963 President John F. Kennedy proposed the Civil Rights Act to America. He wanted everyone, regardless of race, to be treated equally. That would mean no more segregation or discrimination. A few months later, on November 22. The Act was passed by President Kennedy’s successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, on July 2, 1964. Finally, everyone was to be treated equally.


Example #4

The Explosion of the Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement was an explosion: it was sometimes violent, sometimes magnificent but always like a fireworks display with foundation shattering events happening everywhere.  We fought each other, though sometimes not openly.  We tried our hardest to stop our fellow countrymen from reaching success and happiness in whatever way we could, but somehow we were not at war.  Everything that led up to the Civil Rights Movement was dramatic, to say the least.  The leaders during this time period were either extremists or average people who wanted to show how they felt.  Even the major events at the time were either normal gatherings or fiascos that drew large crowds.  Everything in this time period was blown out of proportion.

The events that brought about the Civil Rights Movement were very interesting due to their simple nature and complex outcomes.  The slavery of African Americans is just the first of all of these events.  The colonists were so selfish that they wanted others to do their work for them, and who better than these Africans?  The Civil War was supposed to ensure the African Americans freedom, but instead it only created loathing for these people.  Because of this hostility these people were separated from the rest of society.  They were seen as unequal, and different.  This hatred brought nothing but more hatred.  To quote Martin Luther King Jr., one of the leaders at the time, “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.” This brilliant quote gives us a glance at the true meaning of peace, and allows us to see these abused people for who they really were kind, gentle souls.

The leaders at the time were either normal or extremists: there was no in-between.  There were zealots such as the Ku Klux Klan, or normal people like Martin Luther King Jr.. There were fanatics on both sides, however:  Malcolm X was one of the most well-known radicals fighting for black rights.  These people either wanted things to be fair, or the way that they were before.[develop]

The major events at the time were rather silly things to fight about.  Some of the most well-known things that happened were the Brown v. Board of Education and Plessy Ferguson court cases.  There was also Martin Luther King Jr.’s, I Have a Dream speech.  But one of the more serious occurrences was the Birmingham Church bombing. [develop]

It should be obvious after seeing all of this that the Civil Rights Movement was an interesting time period of the United States of America.  The events that led up to the Civil Rights Movement were like the winding of a clock; they just built up tension between the two sides of the conflict.  The leaders at the time were quite extravagant, but the events were almost like fireworks: most were small, but many were like an explosion , large amounts of the resentment from the Civil War and slavery was released in these events.  All told, the Civil Rights Movement could be seen as either a good event, by releasing the social tensions from the beginning of our country, or as a horrible disaster, making our own countrymen fight against each other.  But no matter what side you take, one thing can be said about this time period:  It was extraordinary.


Example #5


        Imagine you were walking down the street and you got thirsty.  You saw a near-by drinking fountain and headed to it.  Then you saw the “Colored Only” sign hanging above it.  Imagine how you would feel knowing only white people could drink out of that drinking fountain.  This is how the African-Americans felt throughout the Civil Rights Movement.  The Civil Rights Movement was a time where African-Americans and Whites were unequal.  Native-Americans were unimportant and treated unfairly, while the Whites were treated bigger and better.  There were horrible and important historical events that led up to the Civil Rights Movement.   There were also good and bad, helpful and horrible leaders.  Lots of events also occurred during the Civil Rights Movement.  

There were a lot of events that led up to the Civil Rights Movement. There was slavery, end of slavery in 1865, the end of the Civil War in 1865, persecution, segregation, the Klu Klux Klan 1910-1930, Jim Crow Laws, lynching, Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1875, all men could vote in 1875, 1909 National Advancement of colored people, eighty-three women lynched in 1889, NAACP (you can fight for anyone).  Some others were the Brown vs. Board of Education in Kansas in 1951, 1955 integrated, 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott with Rosa Parks, boycotts/ march ins/ sit ins, 1957 Little Rock Nine, 1962 Integrated Universities, June 19, 1963 John F. Kennedy proposed the Civil Rights Bill, 1986 “I have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. at the Washington, D.C. mall, 1965 Voting rights act, 1965 Watts Riots in LA, Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, Assassination of Robert Kennedy on June 6, 1968 in Los Angeles, California.  A lot of these events were tragic and just added to the explosion of the Civil Rights Movement. Andrew Young said, “There’s no problem on the planet that can’t be solved without violence.  That’s the lesson of the Civil Rights Movement.”  This means that every problem on Earth is solved with violence, like the Civil War, Slavery, Rosa Parks, and so many others.  This is why so many places and people on Earth are unhappy and unsafe.  If there were problems that you could solve with other things like communication, our world would be a better place.  One of the major events that was slavery.  Slavery was an awful and unfair time for the Blacks.  They were treated unfairly, had different rights, and had to work for people because they had a different skin color.  Rich people could buy them, work them and make them do whatever, no matter the weather or difficulty.  Another event was the Brown vs. the Board of Education in Kansas in 1951.  This event was not a tragic and awful event that happened.  This event stopped segregation in schools.  It was a hopeful and good event that led up to the Civil Rights Movement.  

Leaders were a huge impact in the Civil Rights Movement.  Some of the leaders that were a part of it are Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, the KKK (Klu Klux Klan), NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), Robert Kennedy, Black Powers, Black Panthers, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr.  Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist Minister and a Civil-Rights Activist.  He played a huge role in ending segregation of African-American people in the South and other places, too.  Robert Kennedy was another leader.  He was a supporter for the Civil Rights Movement.  He worked to get the African-Americans civil rights.

A lot of things and events happened during the Civil Rights Movement.  They were the Brown v. Board of Education in 1951, Montgomery Bus Boycott (Rosa Parks 1955), Little Rock Nine in 1957, 1962 integration at universities, assassination of Martin Luther King Junior on April 4, 1968, 1963 John F. Kennedy proposes the Civil Rights Bill, 1964 Civil Rights Bill passed, and in 1963 the Voting Rights Act.  The Montgomery Bus Boycott (Rosa Parks 1955) was when all the blacks/ African-Americans refused to ride the bus in Montgomery, Alabama.  This lasted for one year (December 5, 1955 to December 20, 1956).  The Little Rock Nine in 1957 is an African-American group of nine people who enrolled in a white school in Little Rock, Arkansas.  The group consisted of Minnijean Brown, Terrance Roberts, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta Walls.  They enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.  eh7